(Jpost).A top Democratic member of Congress chastised the Obama administration Thursday for deploying sanctions against Iran merely in a “symbolic” way that he warned could signal weakness to Tehran.
Earlier this week the State Department designated the Belarusian energy company Belarusneft, only the second time any US administration has imposed sanctions on a foreign company doing business with Iran. The first time was late last year against the Swiss-based, Iranian-owned energy company NICO.
In addition, on Thursday the US Treasury on Thursday also sanctioned three vessels involved in illicit shipments for Iran.
“We have once again imposed sanctions on a company that doesn’t do any business in the US, so the sanction has no more than symbolic impact,” charged House Foreign Affairs Committee Ranking Member Howard Berman at the opening of a hearing with outgoing Deputy Secretary of State Jim Steinberg. “When we do that, I’m afraid we’re sending Iran a signal more of weakness than of strength, and we’re having no impact on their economy. Such impact is the very point of sanctions.”
"During a time of turmoil in the Middle East it was crucially important to keep our eye on the Iranian nuclear ball at all times".
House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairwoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen backed Berman’s comments and herself issued a statement after the Belarusneft designation, saying that while the move was positive:
“The bottom line is that the State Department has not yet acted to fully implement and enforce our Iran sanctions laws.”
“In addition to going after the low-hanging fruit like Belarusneft, the State Department must impose sanctions against energy giants that continue to do business with Iran. That’s the only way that our sanctions will have the force to compel the Iranian regime to stop policies and programs that threaten the United States.”
In Thursday’s hearing, The Congressmen also challenged Steinberg on whether the US actions against Col. Muammar Gaddafi were helping clear a path for al Qaida, the Muslim Brotherhood or others contrary to US interests to operate in Libya.
The US has acknowledged that they are not fully certain of the composition of the rebel group seeking Gaddafi’s ouster, and reports of al Qaida elements in Libya have surfaced.
“We have to be attentive. We have to be alert. We know that al Qaida has had a presence in Libya in the past and we want to make sure it doesn’t re-establish there. But what we’ve seen so far is that this is not a significant factor,” Steinberg said.
But he maintained that the Libyan opposition are “not looking to al Qaida; they’ve rejected al Qaida.”
In fact, he said that Islamist groups are on the defensive because it was “democratic forces” that have been toppling dictators.